7 Essential Brush Strokes Every Watercolorist Should Know

I’ve been using watercolor from my paintings for years, and am happy to share what I have learned with you. Just follow a few simple tips and use a little imagination, and before you know it you will become quite good without having to spend an arm and a leg.

Get ready to make your mark — these watercolor brush strokes are essential for creating beautiful paintings.

While watercolor is known as a fluid and painterly medium, there are some extremely helpful basic brush strokes that will help refine your painting and open up new worlds of texture in your work.

MASTER THESE NINE TYPES OF WATERCOLOR BRUSH STROKES AND YOU’LL BE CREATING WATERCOLOR WORKS OF WONDER IN NO TIME.

1. LINES

Like in drawing, watercolor can be used to paint lines. Simply put, all you have to do is dip your brush in paint and use your brush to draw lines of any shape, size or thickness.

(C) Life in the Wee Hours

With watercolor, there are two key ways you can create lines, and they’re often combined in a single painting.

DRY LINES

Either using watercolor from a tube, or minimally wetting your brush to use watercolors in a pan, you essentially use a “dry” brush to apply paint. You’ll have dark, clear lines, but they will not have the flowing quality that is most usually associated with watercoloring.

WET LINES

By simply wetting your brush, either a little or a lot, you’ll get a different consistency with your lines in watercolor.

Note: a “dry” or “wet” approach can be used with any of the brush strokes featured in this post for a different effect!